Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Pearl Harbor

We booked a
tour through NCL to see Pearl Harbor, and what an experience it is.
The harbor is breathtaking, and you truly get a sense of the history
that occurred there. Our tour lasted a few hours, and after being
picked up from the ship we were off. Pearl Harbor gets very busy, even
early in the morning, so our tour time was about 2 hours after we
arrived. However, the only part of Pearl Harbor that you need a ticket
for is the USS Arizona or the USS Bowfish, so we were able to walk
around the rest of the memorial on our own. Once your tour begins you
are brought into a theater where you watch a 15 minute video on Pearl
Harbor; it is an emotional, well-done video that touches on just how
devastating the attack really was. Following this you are brought by a
small boat to the USS Arizona memorial, where you have about 25 minutes
to walk around with your group. It was fascinating to look down and see
the ship, along with the entire wall of names for the soldiers who lost
their life that day.

Polynesian Adventure Tour Company

I feel as if I should
write a little about the Polynesian Tour Company, because this is the
major tour company used for excursions in Hawaii by NCL, although you
can also book tours on your own. Overall, and although I slightly
expected it, I felt as if the tours were overpriced, and lasted much
longer than they needed to. Each tour we went on with the company
included "shopping stops" where we were brought to an affiliate of the
company and dropped off for 30-45 minutes; to me, this is unnecessary.
The tour drivers were also very upfront-on the Pearl Harbor tour we
were actually told to "take care" of our driver. I ended up enjoying
things like the Road to Hana and the Feast at Lele much more than the
tours booked through the cruise ship-I would highly suggest trying to
arrange tours on your own.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Volcano National Park

We booked
an excursion to see Volcano National Park through the ship, since we
wanted a tour guide to brink us through the park-and for $80 a person it
seemed the best value in terms of cost and efficiency. I do think you
would be able to see a lot more if you went on your own with a car, but I
really did enjoy our time at the park. Hilo is apparently the rainiest
city in Hawaii, and it did not disappoint the day of our tour;
thankfully we were able to purchase ponchos for $2, because we would
have been drenched without them. I would also suggest dressing in
layers, because at parts of the park it was a bit chilly. The tour
started with a visit to Big Island Candy, which produces homemade
chocolates and shortbread cookies. After this, we proceeded to the
actual park, which is about 30 miles outside of the town of Hilo. While
there, we got to see hot springs, craters, a lava tube, a lava field,
and the devastation trail. It was all remarkable, and in such contrast
to the time we spent in Maui. All in all a wonderful day.